Post by exchef on Jul 17, 2018 5:25:43 GMT -5

Here it is Tuesday morning after my weekend with the NEC TdC, as many of you know I have been doing this event since 2013 and absolutely enjoy it. It’s a worthwhile time either as rider or volunteer which I have done the last two years because of my back.

While I am frustrated at not being on the bike for the event, I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with to ensure that the event is smooth, fun and safe than the “caravan of crazy”.

This year, I was teamed up with the event nurse and my daughter in the primary role of chauffeur, we rode the entire length of the course each day, monitoring riders, rest stop hopping and just all around being available. fortunately, there were no events that required medical attention as of the end of our day yesterday. That’s not to say that there wasn’t some excitement on the course, yesterday morning, a short while after rolling out of Durham NH a driver took out a telephone pole on the route thus downing electric wires and blocking that segment of the route. now, here’s were I take issue with some of our riders in so far as a decent size group of the front riders decided to transverse the downed wire instead of giving the volunteers a chance to get them rerouted with a detour. I don’t get it, why risk your health, who really cares that you don’t get to UNE first? It’s not a race and even if it were so what? We always talk at the start of the event about safety, never thought that Tim would need to add “don’t be f’n STUPID” to it.

Anyway, moving on from that, Saturday was beautiful, great weather not too hot. Riders were doing well, no concerns. At the unofficial water stop before Rest Stop 1, there was a mechanical, one of the riders had his handlebars snap when he was getting back on the bike. Timing is everything, had it let go while he was riding, then the nurse’s attentions would have been needed. As it was he was SAG’d to Durham NH where there was a bike ship who was able to get him back on the road with a new set of bars in pretty short order. Only other mechanical was a broken derailleur hanger. It is fortunate that these were the only bike problems as we were missing one of the usual mechanics, wasn’t able to make it at the last minute.

Back to the rest stop hopping, completely uneventful. Got a great burger at rest stop 2, the farm. Lots of beautiful scenery, decent amount of hill climbing for the riders and not a huge amount of traffic. There were a few spots were riders should have singled up but didn’t but that is going to happen.

After getting to UNH in Durham, there was plenty of time to kick back and relax while waiting for riders to get in. We broke out the camp chairs and just kicked back, of course me being the very intelligent man that I am, did not think to put sunscreen on my face and have once again “lobstered”. but, such is life, while the riders who made it in started to enjoy their post ride adult beverage, I decided it was time to smoke the cigar I brought with me. Hey, we all get to have our vices right? For me, it was the perfect way to wind down the long day of driving.

During dinner, Tim played a slide show of pictures taken from the 2016 event, which was my daughter’s first year volunteering, in which he had a pic of us, it was great to see it. She has become some what of a favorite there, all of the volunteers love her, most of the veteran riders know her and enjoy seeing her there. Tracy and Faith, the “moms” of the volunteer world wanted to keep her for the full week event. They have raised their kids volunteering for this event and it really does become a family.

Yesterday, another great day. Not the best start because it was one of those dreary drizzly starts but as the day wore on it got nicer and nicer. We continued with driving “sweep” for a bit and when we encountered the downed wire situation which I commented on previously jumped into trying to get riders to NOT do where the wire was and worked on getting them rerouted. Between information supplied by one of the neighbors to the crash and our route master a detour was quickly created and marked out. annoyingly, there were a number or riders who chose to put themselves into harm’s way by crossing the road where the downed wire was. Once we got through the detour it was back to rest stop hopping. When we were at rest stop 3, it seems that there was a phone call and a rider that went back down the route because of a stuck rider or something. We never got the full story, but we hopped in the car and backtracked a few miles to ensure that we didn't’ lose any riders or have an injury that needed to be dealt with. We didn’t find anyone, so turned back around and went back to let them know we were heading to the next stop.

Then eventually, we got to Biddeford ME and UNE, end of the day’s ride. The sun came out, the riders rolled in, there was much relaxing, great music and even better company. Dinner was in the new Cafe at the University, much better than previous years. It was nice to NOT have to worry about getting my bike loaded on the UPS truck, or making sure that we got seats on the bus. After dinner we said our goodbyes and gave each other encouragements to make it again next year, good number of people are hoping to see me as a rider again but love having me volunteer.

Things I learned this year:

Great company makes a great event even better. I was sad at not riding again this year, but the company in my car more than made up for it. It’s amazing how selfless people can be, most of these people only know each other from this event but it’s amazing how much they will do for one another. This is an event that I hope to continue for years to come!

Well, that’s really it. I know, TL:DR. But if you did take the time to read it, thank you.